This introduction covers Setting the Scene within The Great Plague for GCSE History. Revise The Great Plague in Medicine Through Time for GCSE History with 8 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. Use this page as part of a wider topic revision path rather than treating it as an isolated fact. It is section 1 of 13 in this topic. Use this introduction to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
📖 Setting the Scene
Over 300 years after the Black Death, plague returned to London in 1665. Samuel Pepys recorded the growing terror in his diary: seeing red crosses painted on doors, hearing the cry "Bring out your dead!" By September, over 7,000 Londoners were dying per week. The King fled to Oxford. The wealthy escaped to the countryside. The poor were locked in their houses, often with infected family members. Had medicine progressed? In terms of understanding the cause — barely. The same theories from 1348 were still being used in 1665.
Practice questions for The Great Plague
Approximately how many people died in the Great Plague in London in 1665?
What were Bills of Mortality introduced during the Great Plague of 1665?
Quick recall flashcards
What were the Plague Orders?
Government rules during the Great Plague: infected houses marked with a red cross, residents locked inside for 40 days, watchmen posted to enforce quarantine
What were Bills of Mortality?
Weekly death counts published by the government — first systematic disease tracking